The White House has promised to release news about President Donald Trump’s “fake news” awards by the latter half of the day on Wednesday and is excited to do so, according to one of the press team members.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told Fox News on Wednesday morning that the White House is very excited about the Fake News Awards, but he said there would be an announcement a little later. He invited viewers to “stay tuned” and that it would be a few more hours.
During the White House press briefing Wednesday afternoon, press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that they would be announcing something about the fake news awards later the same day and joked, “I know you’re all waiting to see if you’re big winners, I’m sure.”
In late December Trump’s campaign committee asked supporters to award the “2017 KING of Fake News” trophy.
On Tuesday the Media Research Center released new analysis of evening newscasts of the President by three major media outlets: ABC, CBS and NBC. It found that the tone of coverage of Trump’s first year in office “has been incessantly hostile,” with 90 percent of the coverage being negative against the President.
“More than two-fifths of evening news coverage of the President (43%) focused on controversies, not policies, with the Russia investigation alone accounting for one-fifth of all Trump coverage (1,234 minutes),” read one of the study’s findings. The next finding related to the same Russia investigation coverage, “Despite their massive coverage of Russia, the networks had almost no airtime for questions about how the investigation began, or whether special counsel Robert Mueller’s current investigation is biased.”
Trump has repeatedly rebuked the media for their coverage of his candidacy, presidency, and other topics both on the campaign trail and since taking office.
CNN and the Associated Press are among media outlets that have been embroiled in scandals over incorrect reporting in the past year. CNN ended up retracting a hit-piece that claimed to link Trump and Russia. Three CNN employees resigned over the debunked story.
In early December Trump re-wrote CNN’s slogan in a tweet that called the network, “THE LEAST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS!”
The President also called out ABC News’s Brian Ross for his false report that claimed Trump directed Michael Flynn to contact the Russians during Trump’s presidential campaign. The false report appeared to cause a major dip in the stock market until ABC issued a correction. Ross was later suspended for four weeks.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana